


Last-Second Distractions

by AcesOfSpade



Series: Ace's Random One-Shot Collection [36]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: 3+1, Failed Coming Out, Gray keeps trying to tell Juvia he's gay, M/M, Misunderstandings, Natsu keeps interrupting at the last possible second
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14129628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcesOfSpade/pseuds/AcesOfSpade
Summary: Gray can't seem to tell Juvia he's not interested in girls, let alone her, without Natsu interrupting just as he's about to.Eventually, Juvia finds out for herself what Gray-sama has been trying to tell her.(or: three times Gray tries to come out to Juvia, and one time he didn't have to)





	Last-Second Distractions

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be a _5_ +1, but I couldn't think of two more for the attempts, so I made it three. 
> 
> Also, I've never really written for Juvia before, so I might've done something wrong with her manner of speaking. If I did, I'm sorry. I'll try harder next time, lol

**1.**

Avoiding Juvia had become Gray’s life at this point. The rain mage was far too creepy for Gray’s sanity, and the whole obsession thing was uncomfortable on a good day. Every new deflection he enacted was brushed off by Juvia as ‘lying to himself’, or something else of that nature. Problem was, Gray wasn’t lying to _himself_ , he was lying to _Juvia_.

 

At the point in Gray’s life when he’d met Juvia, he’d known for years, the secret he was keeping. He’d come to accept it as part of himself not long after realizing, yet he couldn’t bring himself to tell anyone else this Important Thing. Why, he didn’t really know. He wasn’t scared or worried or anything. Part of him wanted to tell _someone_ , but another part speculated that they’d already figured it out for themselves, which was what kept him from saying anything. He didn’t want to tell someone and have them tell him they already knew.

 

What secret was Fairy Tail’s resident icicle hiding? The simple fact that he wasn’t attracted to women. He was gay. And until he met Juvia, he’d never felt the need to tell anyone that. Now, it seemed everytime he _tried_ to tell Juvia, something interrupted him before he could.

 

The first time hadn’t been long after Juvia joined Fairy Tail. He was sitting by himself at a corner table, absently staring off into the distance and thinking when Juvia approached and sat across from him, disrupting his thoughts.

 

“Hm? Oh, hey Juvia,” Gray muttered, sounding tired. “How’re you settling in? No one giving you any trouble? ‘Cause I’ll be sure to talk to them about how to treat new members,” he asked, mostly to be polite. He was too tired to process what he was saying, not realizing it came off as really flirtatious.

 

Juvia’s cheeks flushing a light rosy colour was an indicator that he’d said _something_ , which made him sigh internally.

 

“Oh no, Juvia is fine,” she insisted with a shake of her head, though her cheeks were still pink. “It is very nice of Gray-sama to make that offer though,” she added with a swooning tone, cheeks darkening slightly.

 

_Oh_ Gray realized. _She thinks I’m flirting with her. How to I convince her I’m not?_

 

“No big deal,” Gray shrugged, trying to come off as casual. “These guys like to put newbies through Hell to make sure they’ve got what it takes. I’ve seen some pretty bad attempts. Don’t want anyone to have to go up against Cana in a drinking contest or Elfman in a arm wrestling match,” he explained, eyes drifting over Juvia’s shoulder when a familiar laugh cut through the usual din of the guild.

 

“Juvia sees,” she nodded, folding her hands in her lap. “Gray-sama does not wish to see Juvia hurt. It is noble of Gray-sama to keep Juvia from harm at the hands of new friends.”

 

“I do it for everyone,” Gray stated, trying very hard to come across as ‘not interested’. “Happy may be the only animal around, but Fairy Tail can be like a pack of them sometimes.”

 

Juvia nodded with a slight giggle, clearly not believing him. “When will Gray-sama just admit to himself how he feels about Juvia?” she mused, not unkindly.

 

“Juvia, there’s som-,” Gray went to say, tone serious, only to be cut off by a familiar shout from across the guildhall.

 

“Hey Snowflake!” came Natsu’s voice over the chatter. “Got a job for us!”

 

“Sorry,” Gray muttered somewhat apologetically, somewhat relieved as he got up to head over to Natsu. He was glad to dodge that bullet for now, but he knew he couldn’t keep avoiding it forever.

 

* * *

   **2.**

The next chance Gray had to tell her came a week later, during a relatively slow day at the guild. He was once again sitting by himself in the corner, this time working on something in front of him with creased brows and a look of concentration on his pale face. Most of the guild simply left him be, as he did this a lot. Juvia though, she was curious, always wanting to know what her Gray-sama was up to. She went to sit across from him, just watching for a few minutes when she realized he was drawing.

 

The drawing was still in its early stages, so Juvia couldn’t tell what the subject was quite yet. Gray was evidently very focused, as he didn’t notice Juvia for a solid few minutes.

 

“Hey,” he muttered absently, searching out his pencil sharpener and the small dish he kept with it for shavings.

 

“Hello,” Juvia smiled warmly, watching as Gray sharpened his pencil in four quick twists followed by a gently brush of his finger to remove excess shavings from the blade. “What is Gray-sama drawing?” she asked softly, tilting her head slightly.

 

“Dunno,” Gray shrugged, returning his pencil to the page in front of him. “Whatever comes to mind, I guess.” It was a common tactic the ice mage employed when drawing; he never really had a plan as to what he was going to draw, he simply let his imagination run and drew what felt right for the time.

 

“Interesting,” Juvia hummed, watching as his hand glided across the paper, leaving faint lines behind. The two fell silent after that, Juvia watching Gray’s drawing slowly take the basic shape of a portrait. Whoever the person was had soft features, not dissimilar to Juvia’s in her opinion.

 

“Ah, shit,” Gray muttered in annoyance after a while, in response to his pencil’s tip breaking off. With a curse or two under his breath, he repeated his habitual four-twist sharpening to fix it, returning to the drawing right after.

 

“It looks like Gray-sama is drawing a person,” Juvia mused. “A female, if Juvia were to guess,” she added idly. “Maybe Gray-sama is drawing Juvia, because he cares about Juvia.”

 

Gray let out an inaudible sigh of annoyance, lying his pencil on the table and finally looking up at Juvia. “Juvia...” he muttered, shaking his head. “I do care, but not in the way you want me to,” he said evenly. “You’re a nice girl, but you’re just not my type.”

 

“But then what _is_ Gray-sama’s type?” Juvia asked, voice small and close to wavering.

 

Just as Gray went to answer, he was cut off by a shout from across the guildhall from Natsu. He gave Juvia an apologetic look, picking up the drawing and heading over to the dragon slayer lest he get antsy and come physically drag him away.

 

* * *

  **3.**  

Gray was nearing the end of his rope with Juvia’s advances. She’d been fairly tame so far, but _love potion_ was too far. Especially considering this was her _third attempt_ at using a love potion on him. It was getting annoying, having to constantly check to see if she was doing anything suspicious in any way whenever they were anywhere near each other. He decided confronting her was the best course of action, so he waited for the guildhall to be bustling and busy so no one would overhear the conversation.

 

He found her by herself at a table near the bar, sitting across from her with an attempt at a neutral expression that still leaned towards annoyed.

 

“Juvia, there’s something you should know,” he said bluntly once she noticed he was there. “Because love potions aren’t something you should be messing with, since you’ve messed up all of them and affected the entire guild negatively.”

 

Juvia frowned, tilting her head. “Is something wrong, Gray-sama?” she asked softly. “Did Juvia do something to hurt you?”

 

“Not… quite,” Gray shook his head, trying to figure out how to say what he needed to without hurting her. After a brief moment’s pause and a calming breath, he started speaking again. “Your attempts to figure out how I feel about you are getting out of hand,” he began, forcing himself to make eye contact with her, not looking away like he desparately wanted to. “I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks, but I kept getting interrupted,” he went on, sounding faintly relieved rather than upset. “Thing is, I-,” he went to continue, only to, once again, get interrupted by a shout from across the guildhall. He tried to ignore it, but that lasted all of two seconds before a blur of pink hair was at his side, tugging his arm excitedly. Gray was powerless against the dragon slayer’s excitement, resigning himself to being dragged off mid-sentence.

 

* * *

  **+1.**

When Juvia finally found out what Gray had been trying to tell her, there had been no words exchanged between them. Rather, she witnessed him do something that made her realize the truth.

 

It happened after Gray had gone on a job with Cana out of Magnolia, returning with more than a few cuts and bruises. Juvia had noticed how anxious Natsu had been the entire time Gray had been gone, but she didn’t think anything of it at the time. In hindsight, she should’ve realized what it meant.

 

Gray hadn’t made more than five steps into the guildhall before he was ambushed by a flurry of pink that pulled him into a fierce hug, dragging him over to a table not far from where Juvia was sitting reading a book. She couldn’t help but listen in, shifting slightly so she could see what was happening.

 

“Are you okay?” Natsu asked in concern, hands reaching out to brush over some of the bigger bruises to see if Gray flinched. His shoulders relaxed when he gave no reaction, though his posture was still tense. “You said it’d be an easy job, that you wouldn’t get hurt!”

 

One of Gray’s hands reached up to grab one of Natsu’s, pulling it down to rest on the table. “Natsu, I’m fine,” he insisted, though rather than sounding frustrated he sounded amused at Natsu’s worry. “It’s only some bruising, it’ll be gone by the end of the week.”

 

“What if it hadn’t been _just_ bruising?” Natsu countered, other hand eventually falling to the table as well, though it was quickly snagged by Gray, who laced their fingers together on both hands. “Something bad could’ve happened,” he reminded Gray, which was followed by some sort of noise Juvia couldn’t understand. Gray apparently did though, because he just chuckled softly.

 

“I can hold my own in a fight against some squirrel puppets,” Gray assured him, which was also followed by a sound Juvia didn’t understand. Were they speaking a different language? She couldn’t tell. “And besides, I had Cana with me. If, by some stroke of luck, the squirrel puppets did more than minor damage, she’d have no problem taking them out on her own.”

 

Natsu let out a little huffing noise, pulling Gray’s hands closer to his side of the table in a protective manner. _That’s odd_ Juvia thought, _Gray-sama and Natsu-san are usually fighting. Why would Natsu-san be so worried about Gray-sama getting hurt?_

 

“That’s not the _point_ ,” Natsu sighed. “I know Cana will gladly kick ass whenever needed. The point is, you’re _my_ partner. I’m supposed to worry about you, you idiot,” he said, probably trying to sound stern, but to Juvia he sounded relieved, and sort of like he was laughing.

 

Gray laughed softly, leaning forward and…

 

O _h_.

 

That must’ve been what Gray-sama was trying to tell Juvia all those times. Gray-sama wasn’t interested in Juvia because he was with someone else, that someone else being Natsu-san. At least, that’s what she gathered from the kiss they’d just shared. She felt stupid for not realizing before, looking back. She had been too focused on her own feelings she hadn’t taken a moment to consider that Gray-sama and Natsu-san were more than friends. She knew they were friends and not enemies like many assumed, but she didn’t realize their bond went deeper than that. She was pulled from her thoughts when the two pulled apart and began speaking again.

 

“It’s my job to worry about _you_ ,” Gray teased, shaking his head fondly. “’cause we both know you don’t. You don’t need to worry about me,” he said, which was followed by that same odd sound from before. Was it some sort of fond nickname? Juvia couldn’t tell, though the tone he used didn’t sound unkind.

 

“You’re such an idiot,” Natsu teased, shaking his head right back. “I worry about you because I love you, remember,” he pointed out, which was the final evidence Juvia needed to truly accept that Gray-sama would never see her the way she saw him.

 

“And I worry about _you_ because I love you,” Gray fired back easily. “Neither of us is going to win this argument, so why don’t we drop it and I’ll let you make sure none of these cuts are too deep?”

 

“Deal,” Natsu nodded, grinning teasingly.


End file.
